At IMTS 2018, like at any industrial trade show, the predominant theme was Industry 4.0. Although Industry 4.0 still has not scaled up to cover a significant percentage of manufacturing setups, its vision of near-total automation—and the promise of resulting cost savings—has clearly captured the industry’s imagination.

Smart cameras and vision sensors have been key tools for monitoring and controlling the manufacture and movement of products in industrial environments for many years.

Whether you are working on an unmanned aerial vehicle or drone, a car, or an entirely new way to get around, such as a hoverboard, testing is a must. (Yes, hoverboards need testing too.) Physical evaluation testing is required in an increasing number of industries, including electronics.

Data isn’t everything. But it’s perhaps the main thing standing between you and a successful project. Continuous improvement takes effort, but more than anything, it takes solid information and analysis. In other words, wouldn’t it be more helpful to use statistical process control to find out where your process is going wrong, rather than just a hunch?

ARaymond, an industrial supplier of fastening and assembling solutions, rose from humble beginnings. Founded in Grenoble, France in 1865, the family business “started out making fastening elements for the glove and footwear industry,” says Jake Fox, senior quality engineer at ARaymond’s Brunswick, Ohio location.

A much-discussed manufacturing skills gap between retiring baby boomers and millennials in their 20s and 30s—plus, current 18 to 23-year-olds who belong to Generation Z—remains an issue.

Quality control managers have the delicate task of verifying and guaranteeing that manufacturied parts meet customers' requirements, specifications and tolerances.

Increasingly, today’s progressive global manufacturers are implementing thoughtful, collaborative and comprehensive forms of front-end quality planning.

The Automate Show brought thousands of robots to Chicago this week. The robots were serving ice cream and beer, playing music, and in one case, boxing. They were wowing attendees with their speed and service, musical skills (the KUKA ones wore bows for their performance), and fight demos. Machine vision and image analysis was also on display.

For medical parts manufacturers, quality inspection is critical. Liability for defects, inconsistent quality, fluctuating supplier costs, increased globalization and device regulations all pose challenges for the industry.